Intermittent Fasting: Can It Help With Weight Loss?

It is an eating plan that switches between fasting and eating on regular schedules and is currently one of the world’s most popular health and fitness trends.

There are various methods that can be followed in an intermittent fasting schedule:

• 16/8 method: Also known as the Lean gains protocol, this regime mostly involves skipping breakfast and eating meals during an 8-hour period such as 11am to 7pm and then committing to a 16 hour fast period.
• 5:2 diet: This diet split involves eating normally for 5 days of the week and the other 2 days of the week eating only 1 meal or 500-600 calories per day.
• Eat-Stop-Eat: This practice involves fasting for straight 24 hours, once or twice a week.

How it works?

Once body exhausts its reserved sugars it starts burning fat to generate energy. By intermittently fasting, you force the body to burn stored fats to produce energy which leads to weight loss.

What to eat?

Without any explanation, a balanced diet is essential with this kind of eating lifestyle.

Benefits

• Weight Reduction.
• Believed to curb Diabetes, Hypertension and underlying heart disease, nerve degenerative disorders, inflammatory bowel diseases and some types of cancer (ongoing research).

Who should not do this diet?

• Children and teens below 18yrs
• Pregnant or Breast feeding women
• Diabetics
• Underweight or people with eating disorders

Reference: https://www.healthline.com/nutrition/intermittent-fasting-guide#simpler-lifestyle